Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Thursday Thoughts || Books to Movies

It's that time of the week again! I can't believe week number three of Thursday Thoughts is already here. Is this going super fast or is that just me? This is an interactive, original, weekly feature here on my blog. Everyone who has an opinion is invited to make their own post, link up and join the conversation! This week's theme is Books to Movies. I felt this was a perfect topic considering all the buzz surrounding the new Divergent movie! So, let's just get started.

This was actually the topic that initially sparked the idea of Thursday Thoughts and made all of this wonderfulness possible! So, speaking of Divergent, I'm going to start off by addressing the conversation my best friend and I had about a month ago that got me thinking about how everyone perceives things differently and has different opinions while reading. My friend hates Shailene Woodley as Tris Prior, who is the main character of Divergent in case you weren't aware. She just can't get over how much she doesn't look like what she pictured. But, for me personally, I think that the casting of the movie was absolutely immaculate. Literally everyone was exactly how I pictured them when I was reading the book. (Especially Christina. I think that Zoe Kravitz is PERFECT for that role.)

Just gonna leave this here for ya.

Now, I haven't seen the movie yet, but my friend and I are both huge Divergent fans so she and I obviously both researched the cast a ton to see what we thought ahead of time. We had such differing opinions that it shocked me! She also thinks that Theo James is a bit more buff than she pictured Four being. Now, fangirls don't get your panties in a twist. We both agree that Theo is hot as hell, but it amazes me how different our experiences reading the books were. This made me think about how there are probably an infinite amount of different experiences readers can have while reading any given book. For that reason, I think books being made into movies are extremely hard to pull off properly because it's simply impossible to please everyone.

What shocks me, though, is that people still get crazy excited for book to movie adaptations. That's because they don't realize this! Not every movie will be a smash hit like The Hunger Games and not every movie will do a good job of depicting the characters just as you think they will because ten other people pictured them ten other ways when they read it. However, that's not a bad thing by any means! We just need to be open minded going into a book to movie adaptation. Don't have too high of expectations. For example, when the very first Harry Potter film came out way back in the day some people were totally against Daniel Radcliffe saying he didn't fit the role. But in hindsight, are those people totally happy now after all the movies have come out and been fantastic? I bet they are.

Back to Divergent since it's kind of my example movie for this post (even though I have yet to see it. *cries*), I do know that there are a few secondary characters from the book who aren't going to be featured in the first movie. This totally upsets me. I'm not going to say who because maybe that's considered spoilers? I don't know. Either way, I do get a little pissy when characters or remotely relevant plot points are left out in movies. Like, would it really have hurt you to put in that one more little scene? Probably not. But, now it's hurting me because it's not there. Okay, I'm being a little bit over-dramatic, but you get what I'm trying to say.

Now, to address the final question that I proposed in the prompt; Do you mind seeing the movie before reading the book? No. Plain and simple, I do not mind. I am not one of those strict readers who is like "Oh my god, I can't let myself see the movie yet because I've never read that book." One of the main reasons for this is that I'm a slow reader. That's kind of a silly reason, but if there's a movie out that I want to see I'm going to go see it regardless. The only situation I can really think of in which I wouldn't see the movie until reading the book is, like, books in a series. By the time they make the Insurgent movie... I will hopefully be finished reading the book and if not, I probably won't see it until I am. This is amusing because, if you weren't aware, I've been trying to get though Insurgent for a good 6 months or something ridiculous like that. At this point it's kind of a DNF. Whatever. I'm getting off on a tangent.

All in all, I have a pretty open mind when books become movies and I think that's the best way to go into it. If you keep an open mind and make sure your expectations aren't too high, you'll be able to appreciate the movie regardless of how it turns out. And, that's all I have to say on that! I hope you enjoyed this Thursday Thoughts post. Don't forget to link up below if you're joining in!

Have you seen Divergent yet? Did you enjoy it (no spoilers!)? What is your favorite book to movie adaptation ever?

I have yet to see Divergent either *cries*. It's not out until tomorrow but I will definitely be going to see it then. I didn't get Woodley being cast either, just because Tris is supposed to be ridiculously short and she is in no way short at all. But I love her as an actress, so I will get over it.

Insurgent isn't worth it ;) and if you are struggling with that then you don't want to get to the snooze fest that is Allegiant.

I'm looking forward to the Divergent movie since I loved the book. I'm not too picky about casting. In my mind, heroines always look like an idealized (and, in this case, much younger) version of me, so casting never gets that right! I get it over it once the movie gets going.

Fun question this week! I used a couple of classic movies as examples in my post.

I am sorry to miss this week - my vacation made everything totally crazy. But I am definitely a must-read-the-book-before-the-movie type of person. I don't love spoilers generally and that's basically what they are. The only exception is if it's a book I really don't necessarily care to read. But if it's something I'm interested in, I will always read the book first. Sometimes, though, movies can inspire me to read the book after if it's something I thought I wasn't interested in, but turns out the movie was so good I want to check it out. If that makes sense?

I'm so glad I was finally able to join in this week! Definitely a good week for me to start off with, as I love movies.

I, personally, really enjoyed the Divergent movie. Casting is never who I expect it to be, but once I see the actors in their roles, I'm almost always happy. I was ridiculously concerned about Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, and now I can't possibly imagine anyone else in that role.

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My name's Ashley. I'm a twenty year old girl from good ol' Ohio who can't resist a good book. Reading has become a big part of my life, so I created this blog to share any and all of my bookish thoughts with you! Join me in my reading journey and get a glimpse of my adventures along the way. Ok? Let's read.